Blog

Federal Reform Bills Gaining Attention

In the wake of the introduction of federal marijuana reform bills on February 5, the national media has started paying closer attention to the possibility of change in the coming years. One example is this interview with MPP’s director of government relations, Steve Fox:

Such bills have come before Congress in the past with less fanfare, but it seems like this time they are being taken more seriously. Perhaps the fact that voters in Colorado and Washington decided they were sick of marijuana prohibition had something to do with it:

34 Responses to “Federal Reform Bills Gaining Attention”

I find it interesting that we do not use the term recreational when referring to alcohol, why is that? Is it because alcohol is a recreational drug without any medical purpose?

When I listen to the media’s use of the word recreational in reference to cannabis, it seems to imply some kind of danger or unbridled behavior. It would be nice to spin the word recreational out of the public discourse when talking about legalization.

The merits of cannabis goes well beyond it’s medicinal and recreational uses. Cannabis will modify the social construct allowing for a drastic improvement of the human conditon over time.

You know i have been to bars growing up. And I have seen what alcohol does to people. One wrong word said or if that person is mad before drinking, will cause that person to become more agressive or violent. When smoking marijuana the only fights I have seen, with the same setting as alcohol, is don’t get in front of the fridge. That is it. Alcohol should be banned and marijuana should take it’s place. Because marijana is no more of a gateway drug than alcohol. legalize marijuana. Outlaw or ban alcohol.

I agree for the most part, until the end of the page w the last users comment? Ban alcohol? I don’t drink or consume alcohol but im sick & tired of any mentality that wants to ban anything! How can we ever get around to killing & destroying tyrannical ideas, thoughts, & principles as contained within the simple comment of legalize pot but ban alcohol? Any consumed substance should be solely at the descretion of the individual consuming it. Our country’s founding fathers believed strongly n individual liberties, so why cant we as well? Weve not lived n a free society/country n over, well over 250 yrs at LEAST! The government slowly started removing our freedoms one by one at the passing of the very first drug laws. They use fear upon society as a tool to gain an even more addictive substance than anything else upon the globe & thats a thing called POWER! Thru this tyranny came about its destruction of our once free great nation. No 1 will admit it, but it all started through anti drug laws & im not merely talking bout drug freedoms, im saying they used drugs as a tool to instill fear n the hearts of Americans to demolish all freedoms & eventually to dismantle the USA Constitution! Why is it no 1s ever pointed this out? You see within a totally free society ran by a free peoples, a government has no way of trashing that nations freedoms unless theyve got a metgod of promoting fears! Its through fear u scare that nations populus, & thus n return they come running 2 that government begging & pleading to pass more restrictive laws & thus 1 by 1 they say bye bye to their liberty! Are people that blind they don’t see it? The tyrants among all fallen nations akways destroys a nation thru these means. First u weasle your way into political office, step 2 instill fear & brainwash the public, step 3 become KING! GAME OVER! CHECKMATE! WE LOSE! That is unless we are the actual dictator in which case we win but u get the point I hope?!

Our politicians have to get away from this pilgrim witch hunt kind of thinking. Cannabis is the safest consumable there is. Hell sugar is worse for you then cannabis. And now our politicians are using the same lie tactics they used to ban cannabis to ban our right to defend our self . Wake up people and smell the Constitution and the Bill of Rights burning !

Resolving Federal vs State is still essential in ending prohibition nationally in America. US Court of Appeals heard arguments in October 2012 to reclassify marijuana and remove it from Schedule 1 substances. Currently Federal still trumps State in all matters of this nature.

A few years back a lot of kids were sniffing paint but we didnt ban paint. We made it were you have to be 18 or 21 to buy it. I dont understand how they can force us to use opiate based drugs when cannabis is so much safer and works just as good in many cases

Yes it appears people are blind or apathetic! I have spent hrs emailing and calling state representatives on many matters such as the legalization of cannabis, to try and get them supportive, and now concerning the gun control bills. This take hours! Its just not that easy or convenient so people just let it roll. You are right! Why do they call it recreational? Because that less supported concept and derogatory word like booze!

Max
I’m very interested in something you mentioned…..” Cannabis will modify the social construct allowing for a drastic improvement of the human conditon over time.” I would like to hear more about what you are thinking…If you wouldn’t mind leaving another comment.

we can talk about it all day. YOu are All right!!!!!!!!!!!!! for god’s sake it is our right to do with our bodies as we please. But we have created this so call society. we allow them to tell us what to do for fear of losing everything, our jobs, our homes, our comfort…everything…So until we figure out how to live without them, without another man ruling over another, we wont have freedom, until then we are f%$!!!!
and yes, Max you said it all in a few words, but it would take nature to kill us and start all over again, maybe just maybe in this great infinite existence we will get it right, maybe once more.

I think MJ has an ally in the new Congressman from El Paso, He and a city councilwoman (both were on the council at the time) authored a book about the destructiveness of the US drug war. He said in his campaign for congress that he would lay low on drugs (my interpretation), but I bet he would support some federal law changes on MJ. The guy he replaced would not.
This congress is Beto O’Rourke 16th district of Texas.

Why should Alcohol companies care about Cannabis? Its not like people are going to stop drinking when Cannabis is legal. People need the re-learn history. Prohibition didn’t not work for alcohol the first time. It did fund organized crime though just like the war on drugs.

I hope I’m alive when the ignorance is finished and a man can plant a tree and harvest it freely without judgement or pursiction I don’t think Louisiana will ever see that day but if we all take a stand they have to listen..

In regard to the question of recreational use of cannabis, the correct word is, PERSONAL !!! This is a personal choice issue, PERIOD !!! Medicinal, recreational, PERSONAL, NATURAL, NORMAL !!!! A choice humans have made for themselves for thousands and thousand of years !!! A quote from Mark Cady, Iowas chief supreme court judge in regard to the unanimous decision by our Iowa supreme in the court in 2009, in the Varnum ruling,. is that our constitution is based upon natural law, and that the legislature shall make no laws granting special privilege to one group at the exclusion of another group. The use of this plant is an issue of natural law ! Human existence is dependent upon the use of plants for our survival, and to choose to use plants for our own personal reasons is as natural as it gets !!! There is no place for any law in regard to this issue, our government has lied outright in regard to this entire issue and it is time to put an end to government having any say in the matter …

I know that marijuana has replaced the dangerous, addictive drugs my doctors prescribed for me, prozac, xanax and oxycontin. I am now free from pain, anxiety, and depression free, but more importantly, FREE OF ADDICTION. Monsanto is TERRIFIED of hemp, most people don’t realize our corporate owned government is paid to keep marijuana illegal to maximize the profits of a corporation who introduced grain with animal genes. This was supposed to keep chemicals on crops down but we are now using more than ever in history. The seeds won’t even germinate until sprayed with Round-up, an Agent Orange style defoliant. As hemp needs none of their chemicals they will continue to fund the two major political parties to keep it illegal. When 78% of our Government votes AGAINST the labeling of GMOs something has gone TERRIBLY WRONG!!!! We need to clear out BOTH parties and vote INDEPENDENT so maybe our voices in Washington will actually reflect our beliefs!! REVOLUTION NOW!!!!

It is past due time, for those of us that have had our rights violated by these laws, to assemble on the National Mall this 4/20/13 , 1 million strong, and demonstrate that we will unite to bring an end to this unconstitutional prohibition, by lighting 1 million blunts at once to send a smoke signal for Obama and congress and the world to see and smell !!!!!

I feel like it should be legal everywhere this is something that can help a lot of people. Including the ones that have to illegally sale it to people that NEED IT. They get locked up for years for this soft drug

My wife & I are both medical marijuana patients in Colorado.
80% of the 60 MMJ dispensaries are going to change over to the legal pot and will not carry the medical marijuana strains anymore. The remaining few will be jacking up the prices by 20 to 30%. We live on social sercurity so, we will not be able to afford our medications.
Congratulations to the stoners and surfers who will be able to smoke all the pot they want.
So my question is; what in the hell are we law abiding medical marijuana patients going to do?
Your freedom is our loss. think about that before you smoke pot in the morning.
thank you, NOT

Rick, you can always grow your own MMJ. I’ll never buy the crap off the street. I’ll quit smoking before that happens. I started growing my own over ten years ago and after a couple of years I finally got it down to 20% THC or better. You’ll need to buy seeds from Canada or Europe to get a quality strain. After that all you need is Miracle Grow and 4 months worth of patience. Under Colorado law you can grow six plants per MMJ patient. I grew 12 plants last summer and ended up with 8 + lbs. The cops said it was 11 lbs. but they lie about all their busts. Soon as I’m free I’m moving to Colorado.

I have been diagnosed with Chronic pain. I fractured C3 my third vertabrae in my neck. I had the same injury as Christopher Reeves. I am very thankful and grateful for being able to walk and be alive.I am 44 and it happened when I was 16. Recently I have been taking Hydrocodone for the pain,and already I am hooked. Addiction is a very nasty experience. Marijuana has yet to be proven addictive chemically. Patients should have options as for what the need to relieve pain. I do not smoke pot. I have and would if I could ,but its illegal and my employer randomly test for illegal drugs. Yea it would be a recreational drug for some,but I see no harm in the side effects or what it turns people into. Alcoholism is another story, but until it is approved by the government and decriminalized the government is losing money to the criminals and forcing people to partake in criminal activity. The supply and demand will always be there.The government has to see that.

Re Stan. I would love to grow but all we have is our balcony in this condo so we have no place to grow. There is no way we can afford to buy what we need to grow indoors or even afford the electricity.
We are not alone in this. There are so many others just like us.
I can’t see our socialist government helping us either.
We’ll all just have to wait & see what happens.

Always be on guard for the entrapment segue. Officers especially when using a tag team approach will respond to your “I don’t give permission for any searches.” with “Are you resisting the search?” an affirmative response in many states is a felony just like Resisting arrest. You are not “Resisting” a search when you refuse to give permission. You are refusing to give permission.
You have the right to Withhold Permission. You do not have a legal right to “Resist.” You do not even have the legal right to Say you are resisting. Agreeing with an officer that you are “Resisting” a search with a simple Yes is all it takes. You do not have to actually “Resist.” Merely saying you are by responding Yes is entirely sufficient.

Well, we didn’t win this time but let’s not give up, sooner or later something will have to break, maybe after next year when my family & I make the move to California, it will pass here, but I will still support the legalization of Marijuana until the day I die!

I too agree with marijuana doesn’t make people violent like alcohol, plus people are down-right stupid-acting on alcohol. It’s “medicinal” use is no longer necessary with modern allopathics and God’s green herb is a much better pain-killer for people who need it than any allopathics.

I would be willing to wager the entire effort to legalize marijuana that the recent action in Colorado and Washington state will result in a marked decrease in domestic violence, destruction of property, and other rage-based crimes.

Blogroll

Meta

The opinions expressed by our viewers and posters do not necessarily represent the opinions of the Marijuana Policy Project. These views are those of their individual authors alone. MPP does not condone or support the illegal use of marijuana. We do encourage open and frank discussion, but if a comment has been posted that is in some way significantly inappropriate, please email us at [email protected] to report it. Thank you, and we're looking forward to what you think!

"Penalties against drug use should not be more damaging to an individual than the use of the drug itself. Nowhere is this more clear than in the laws against the possession of marijuana in private for personal use."
Former President Jimmy Carter, message to Congress, August 2, 1977

"The amount of money and of legal energy being given to prosecute hundreds of thousands of Americans who are caught with a few ounces of marijuana in their jeans simply makes no sense - the kindest way to put it. A sterner way to put it is that it is an outrage, an imposition on basic civil liberties and on the reasonable expenditure of social energy."
Author William F. Buckley, Jr., The Albuquerque Journal, June 9, 1993

"I really believe we should treat marijuana the way we treat beverage alcohol. If people can go into a liquor store and buy a bottle of alcohol and drink it at home legally, then why do we say that the use of this other substance is somehow criminal?"
Pat Robertson, Chairman of the Christian Broadcasting Network, The New York Times, March 7, 2012